Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

England, Piedmont, and the Cagliari affair 157
It was equally sad, Azeglio told Cavour, to see that Ministers were more concerned with suppressing debate on the Cagliari affair than recher-cher au contraire les argumens en faveur de la dignité nationale.33)
Azeglio's comments, in as much as they applied to Malmesbury, were a little unfair. Since becoming Foreign Secretary at the end of February, Malmesbury had shown himself determined to break the stalemate with Naples over Watt and Park. Unhappy with the lack of English representa-tion at Naples, Malmesbury had at once appointed Richard Lyons to Naples (3 March) as special representative, so to raise England's diplomatic profile there Lyons had immediate success. By 24 March, within days of his arrivai, Lyons was able to report that Watt had been given a full release on medicai grounds and Park had been granted ball. When Park was given his release on 8 Aprii, Malmesbury had been in office for six weeks, and the object for which his predecessors had striven for 8 months without success had been reached.34)
Malmesbury's unilateral action, however, was of little use to the Pied-montese government, whose own chances of success at Naples were gready reduced if England refused (or had no need) to make a joint representation to the Neapolitan authorities. Azeglio, with Cavour's backing, thus contin-ued to question Malmesbury as to the level of English commitment ex-pressed in the note of 5 January.
Malmesbury himself was no clearer as to why such a material altera-
Ition should nave been made to Clarendon's despatch of 29 December. Hudson's explanation, that he did not compare notes with drafts before signing, and Erskine's excuse that he had had difficulty in literally tran-scribing the originai despatch, did not satisfy the Foreign Secretary. In his officiai reply to Hudson (18 March) Malmesbury commented: your expla­nation is unsatisfactory [...] Mr Erskine's conduct [...] is quite inexcusable.35) In private, Malmesbury expressed his thoughts more openly I think Mr Erskine's story as lame a one as I ever saw halt. To make a mistake in copying a whole sentence and introduce a meaning not expressed but of great importance, is ali unpardonable . Erskine was suspended for two months and then relocated to the Legation at Washington.3
2*) E. d'Azeglio to Cavour, 13 March 1858, AST, Lettere Ministri Gran Bretagna (1858-1859), box 126.
*<) H. HKARDER, The Foreign Policy of Lord Malmesbury, unpublished Pb. D. thesis. University of London, 1954, p. 127.
5) Malmesbury to Hudson, 18 March 1858, Correspondenct respecttng the Cagliari*, p. 120.
*B Despite Hudson's pivotal rolc in the controversy which had rcsultcd from the note of 5 January, Malmesbury scems mistakenly to have believed that Hudson was larglcy blameless. Although Malmesbury was not immediately sau'sfied by Hudson's explanation, on